The Mote Cricket Club was founded in 1857 and the first Kent County Cricket Match took place at Mote Park in 1859. No cricket pavilion is shown on the ground on the 1868 25 inch Ordnance Survey map. A cricket pavilion is shown on the 1897 and 1908 maps in the same location as the present building, but it was a forerunner of the current cricket pavilion.

In 1910 Lord Bearstead, founder of the Shell oil company and owner of the Mote Park estate since 1895, opened a new cricket pavilion which replaced the older building. It included players' dressing rooms and two-tier covered members' seating.

In 1929 the second Lord Bearstead gifted the cricket ground with the Cricket Pavilion and Lord Bearstead's private pavilion called The Tabernacle to Mote Park Cricket Club. The rest of Mote Park, including the mansion, was sold to Maidstone Borough Council.

In the later C20 a rear two storey extension was added incorporating changing rooms and showers on the ground floor with kitchens, utility rooms, further changing rooms and support facilities above. An additional single storey late C20 wing on the south-west side provided a bar and catering facilities.

Details
A cricket pavilion built by Lord Bearstead of Mote Park and opened in 1910. Later C20 rear and south west additions. Vernacular Revival style.

MATERIALS: the rear part is constructed of brick with some ornamental tile-hanging but the front part is timber-framed. Tiled roof.

PLAN: originally a symmetrical building of two storeys and seven bays, with end external staircases comprising two tiers of covered members' seating at the front, a large ground floor club room; the remainder of the building a series of changing rooms. The later C20 rear addition provided further changing rooms on the ground floor and kitchen, utility rooms, more changing rooms and support facilities above. The south-west late-C20 single storey addition houses a bar and catering facilities.

EXTERIOR: the front or south-east elevation has a roof with six hips and a central timber-framed gable with rendered infill and a large clock face. The roof is supported on two tiers of wooden piers providing tiered seating, and the upper tier has wooden balustrades with principal posts crowned by ball finials. The upper tier retains the original wooden benches. The sides have wooden straight flight staircases. Behind the tiered seating the front wall is of brick with six three-light wooden casement windows to the ground floor and a central doorcase with double doors. Part of the first floor right tier has had a timber changing room inserted.
The side elevations have sections of timber-framing to the first floor but are otherwise supported on piers without walls. The rear of the side walls have large gables with carved wooden bargeboards which are hung with decorative tiles. The south-east side has a single-storey flat-roofed extension of brick with some panels of ragstone and a large picture window. The rear elevation has a two storey brick late-C20 addition, flat-roofed with a number of mullioned windows on the ground floor and mullioned and transomed windows on the first floor.

INTERIOR: the ground floor has a large five-bay club room with a plain arch-braced roof with iron tie rods, boarded walls and ceiling and dado rails. Changing rooms have built-in wooden seating and one has a marble fireplace. There are a number of panelled doors. (1)

<1> English Heritage, 2013, English Heritage (Listing) Advice Report for The Mote Cricket Club Maidstone (Unpublished document). SKE25973.